What Hifi star system

[Dom]

I remember Megadrive magazines which used percentage for its rating and a game that received 90% and over was considered must have, I would like What Hifi to have the same system 🙂
Well I'm sure it will never happen and have a nice day.

 

[Al ears]

Tricky to implement and even harder to decipher.
HiFi News is is the only publication I know that uses a percentage system and that's for Sound Quality only.

 

[Dom]

I think your right it would add complexity and even make a mockery of the system. It worked in the 90's, I guess thoughs days are long gone. However more granularity would be nice.

 

[abacus]

Thing is putting 90% equipment together does not guarantee 90% performance, in fact a mixture of lower rating could give much better results, as how they interact with each other is more important than how good they are individually, (You will find on many forums users who picked all best buys or 5 stars etc. that are not satisfied with the combination) as to WHF reviews (Or any reviews for that matter) anything that has 3 stars or more (50% or more) should be on your audition list, not just those that come out top.

Bill

 

[Al ears]

Some like HiFi plus only do reviews without a star of percentage rating which, to me, makes a lot more sense. It i s, after all, just a pointer and up to the individual to audition and to concur with their findings of not.
Too many people finding out that a load of five star rated bits of equipment do not necessarily make a five star set-up......

 

[Dom]

This is why you need forums like these because of what Bill said.

 

[Romulus]

One of my likes about What HiFi is that the star system of rating components is easy to understand, my dislike is this now coverage of gadgets which have nothing to do with HiFi such as this obsession about TV's. Maybe the magazine itself should by renamed 'What HiFi & Gadgets'.

 

[nopiano]

I remember Megadrive magazines which used percentage for its rating and a game that received 90% and over was considered must have, I would like What Hifi to have the same system 🙂
Well I'm sure it will never happen and have a nice day.

Surely 5 stars is no different to 90%, except with your maths head on it’s actually 100%! Five star kit is likely to be very good, but the ratings fall down when innocent buyers think that all 5 star kit works perfectly together, but don’t read the actual reviews.
Later the realise that ‘needs careful matching’ is probably code for excessively bright treble unless you use a smooth amp - I’m sure you can name your own examples!

 

[Dom]

There star system is clumsy, I have no idea if 3, 4 or 5 stars is worth anything, but I enjoy there reviews.

"...buyers think that all 5 star kit works perfectly together, but don’t read the actual reviews."

Yeah.

 

[Dom]

After reading there lastest review the star ideology is pretty good. Sorry What Hifi. You know I couldn't do better.

 

[bartrik]

'Stereo', a German magazine also puts a percentage on gear.
But it's not by category (like entry level - mid hifi - high end - über high end), it's in absolute sound terms.
That's why for example the B&W 801 D4 gets 100%, and a Dali Zensor 5 only 49%.
But the B&W gets only 4 stars (price/quality ratio) while the Dali receives 5 stars.
There's some logic in there.